Bushmaster

The time was 01:00 and our platoon had just completed our first day of operation bushmaster. After the 4th 4 hour block was over we were all exhausted and looking at each other with eyes glazed over. One of our instructors gave us a little pep talk. "Who are we" he said, and no one answered. He yelled louder "Who are we" and someone squeaked out "MBAS" (Marine Battalion Aid Station). After several iterations we yelled "MBAS" together. This was indeed fained enthusiasm because that yell was the only thing between us and our cots.

Over the course of the day we had seen many patients between combat casualties and sick call. In one particular instance as surgeon we had a Pandakari woman who was pregnant who was allowed into camp. She came in and we started to work on her. She was bleeding and within 2 minutes of being on the table she died. The wind was taken out of the camp as we realized that we had a potential international incident on our hands. This information was leaked to the media and we had reporters from ZNN news come into our camp on day two trying to find out what happened in this incident.

On day three of the exercise I took over as CO. The JTF commander radioed in for me and my XO to go to him because one of my medics treated an enemy combatant before 3 wounded U.S. soldiers. This would have taken three valuable assets from our small medical unit and would compromise our mission. When the medic involved was questioned it was determined that the enemy soldier was the most immediate patient. According to the Geneva Convention enemy soldiers get triaged and treated as any American soldier would. I explained this to the JTF commander and we were able to maintain our operation.

After my run as CO we were hit with a mass casualty incident. We had 44 patients that we processed in 2 hours. Unfortunately 4 patients were killed when an FLA (ambulance) rolled backward over some of our patients. Our platoon quickly reacted and we were able to have a successful event.

In the end I graduated from Bushmaster. I worked for over 48 hours over 3 days and now I am home. I appreciate a shower, food that is not MRE's, and a soft bed.